In the retail sales industry, a customer is able to pay for items at a Self Check Out (SCO) station without the aid of a checkout clerk. During operation, the customer typically scans each item across a scanner. When all items have been scanned, the SCO station aggregates the items, indicates the aggregate purchase price to the customer, and allows the customer to pay either at the SCO station or at a central payment area staffed by an employee. Although SCO stations are typically stationary structures, “mobile” SCO stations have been developed recently that allow the customer to self-check out on-the-fly. Such devices are well known in the art and will not be described further.
In addition to the described functionality, most SCO stations also provide a means for accepting paper coupons. Typically, such paper coupons offer discounts on items to encourage customers to purchase the items. The paper coupons are issued by the retailer or by the manufacturer of an item. The paper coupons are scanned by the SCO system, which then deducts the value of the coupons from the aggregate purchase price. While most SCO systems scan coupons, they differ as to how the coupons are then input into the system for accounting and processing purposes. Some SCO systems provide a slot into which the customer can insert the coupons. Nevertheless, a problem exists when the SCO system does not validate the coupon inserted into the slot against the coupon that was scanned during the sales transaction. If the customer inserts a different coupon, the customer can reuse the scanned coupon and the retailer cannot redeem the value of the coupon from the manufacturer.
Accordingly, what is needed is a system and method for processing paper coupons in a SCO system. The system should validate coupons against items scanned and should also provide a means for handling coupons that fail to validate such that customers and manufacturers/retailers who issue the coupons benefit. The present invention addresses such a need.